On December 13th, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, gave evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on his pre-budget report. Kerry took the opportunity to ask him about the Government’s ambitious plans to halve child poverty by 2010 and abolish it within a generation. She quizzed him on whether he favoured a targeted approach, which would give the most help to the poorest children, or a more general approach, for example, of increasing child benefit, which is easier to administer but is paid to all families with children, whether they need the extra money or not.
Kerry also raised the Barker Review of Land Use planning, which is designed to remove the obstacles to economic growth inherent in the planning system, as she has received representations from a number of developers in the Bristol area about the problems they have experienced under the current planning regime.